New Delhi: Some over-the-top (OTT) platforms at times show pornographic content and there should be a mechanism to screen such programmes, the Supreme Court said on Thursday, March 4, and asked the Centre to place its guidelines on regulating social media.
The apex court also fixed on Friday the hearing on the appeal of Amazon Prime Video’s India head Aparna Purohit against the Allahabad high court order rejecting her anticipatory bail in connection with FIRs lodged over web series Tandav.
“We are of the view that some screening of OTT content should take place. A balance has to be struck as some OTT platforms are also showing pornographic materials on their platforms,” a bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and R.S. Reddy said.
During the brief hearing conducted through video conferencing, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Purohit, said the FIRs against her are “shocking” as she is an employee of Amazon and neither a producer nor an actor but still she has been made an accused in around 10 cases relating to the web series across the country.
Also read: Amazon Prime Video Apologises Once Again for ‘Tandav’
“These are all publicity seekers who have been filing cases all over India. Look at the FIR, look at what is happening. If you want to watch this web series, you have to pay to see this,” the senior lawyer said.
Several FIRs have been lodged in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Delhi.
The bench said that though traditional film viewing has become “obsolete,” those films are under a censor board.
“Our query is whether some screening is necessary or not, because you watch anything in your home like a cinema hall,” the bench observed.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said, “They are showing filthy things with abuses too”.
Mehta said he would be placing on records the Information Technology (Guidelines for intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Also read | Explainer: How the New IT Rules Take Away Our Digital Rights
Rohatgi on the other hand said the case against Purohit cannot be based on the regulation which is yet to come in force.
Tandav, a nine-episode political thriller starring Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, started streaming recently.
Purohit has been accused of inappropriate depiction of Uttar Pradesh police personnel, Hindu deities and an adverse portrayal of a character playing the prime minister in the web series.
Earlier, the apex court, on January 27, had declined to grant interim protection from any coercive action to Ali Abbas Zafar, Director of the web series, Purohit, producer Himanshu Mehra, the show’s writer Gaurav Solanki and actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub.
It had said that they may seek bail from courts concerned in the FIRs lodged in connection with the web series.
Now, Purohit has appealed to the top court against the Allahabad high court’s February 25 order declining anticipatory bail to her.
The high court had observed, “Western filmmakers have refrained from ridiculing Lord Jesus or the Prophet but Hindi filmmakers have done this repeatedly and are still doing this most unabashedly with Hindu gods and goddesses.”